After a subpar sleep due to the tropical conditions , having to open the balcony door fully at 2.30am only to be woken by the rubbish truck doing its thing at 4.30am , I was not feeling particularly chipper this morning.
Add to that no coffee available anywhere at such an early hour so the trip to the pool was met with zero enthusiasm as I had an inkling of what was in store.
We warmed up then started with a 50m kick race ( no boards). Then a 50m sprint race. Then a slow/ fast towing swim comp, then a handicap relay race ( our team Europe won thanks to ex pro support crew Christine...phew!) then an 800m time trial which I admit, I didn't time trail as needed a few rests.
Swimming altitude is the absolute worst. Imagine a fully blocked nose then trying to mouth breathe through a very narrow straw....only a few strokes and you feel hypoxic! I muddled through another 1900m after that and didn't make the minimum 3k but that was enough.
The breakfast spread here is a magnificent feast fit for a king; or perhaps Epic campers is more apt! So had a massive brekky then time to roll out as we were riding the Sella Ronda clockwise. What a fabulous ride- it's down there with one of my faves of all time.
I was feeling pretty good given my shortened ride the day before so hung with the bigger guns on the first climb and rejoined them at a set of traffic lights after the first descent as I'm a cautious descender ( = a bit terrified at tight switchbacks). We then spread out a little and I rolled along ensuring to take in the scenery and listened to some good music. I can't say much more than that, rolled in to the hotel with a ~ 4 hr ride time.
We had a compulsory run to do either an hour or 10 km, whatever came first. I had a bit of food fatigue today, perhaps from my gorge at breakfast or possibly chewing felt like too much extra kJ to burn.... so only managed a slice of cold pizza post ride and 2 boiled eggs ... prob not enough calories but managed to slog out an hour , feeling horrendous as if I had wooden fence posts for legs+ similar to how it feels 25km into an IM marathon when you are about to hit the wall. But got 'er done.
I was awarded the red jersey for the day as John presumed I was doing some kind of FTP test behind him on the Sella, well, I wasn't as only had the mapping page on and didn't even glance at my power - but guess it made him feel better about his ride?! Haha.
Dinner was the usual salad, soup then I had spare ribs as wasn't tempted by the veal with tuna sauce for main course but the sheer mental and physical effort to prise meat off the ribs became too much so I hadn't really eaten enough for dinner .
The heavens had opened and a thunderstorm was on outside which cooled the night down . Thank God !!
This would bite me a little today ( Tuesday) but you will have to wait for the next instalment for the low down:-)
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